The Silver Plating of Pewter and a Rare Broad Rimmed Plate c1690 (later Silvered)
Sold by - David Moulson - [email protected] - Specialist Supplier of Scarce Antique British Pewter -
This is a fine and highly unusual plate by Humphrey Hyatt of London, Old Pewter 2502, who was made Free on the first of July 1675. It is unusual for being silver plated, having a non- standard profile and for (perhaps) not being hammered in the booge only being turned on the lathe.
(actually in an odd combination of daylight and artificial light - like in the middle of a November afternoon(!) it is apparent that there is hammering to the booge - but it is difficult to see,- perhaps because of the silvering)
The Plate is 9 inches in diameter with a broad rim of 35% proportions.
Hyatt’s touchmark is clearly struck on the back of the rim as is his crowned rose export mark. He was a substantial exporter of pewter to Scandinavia.
Above are the ownership initials appearing to the back of the plate. Research into Swedish ownership marks by Jan Gadd suggest that one letter marks (F above) are an earlier style than the two letter marks ( B O above).
Engraved on the upper rim are a set of intertwined initials surrounded by fronds in the style of the late seventeenth century.
There are signs of copper under these initials as if perhaps the plate was coated with copper before being silver plated. (no as you will see later that is a wrong thought!)
The writer was told that - "More work needs doing on the silver plating of pewter".
So this writer had a look through various reference books to see what had been written on this subject -- only two sections by different authors was found and these are as follows -
Firstly by Peter R G Hornsby
Secondly by - H J L J Masse - Pewter Plate - Ornamentation Of Pewter -
references to Silvering of Pewter
Thus it appears that in England this type of decoration, silvering or gilding, was illegal from the middle 1500s to the later 1600s.
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Of this Pewterer and Silvering - the well known and respected authority on Old Pewter - Jan Gadd - writes -
You can of course silver plate any pewter object, although it was surely not within the rules of the WCOP (English Pewterers Guild - Worshipful Company Of Pewterers) at the time for the pewterer to embellish items in such a fashion. We would have known more about it of course, had it been a regular procedure.
This leads me to believe that such plating was done more often than not at a (much) later stage.
Sheffield and later Birmingham made numerous items in flatware in Brittannia metal, and copper alloys from the 18th century on, for the sole purpose of silver plating.
If you consult books on Sheffield plate you will see that the method gradually improved. The early 'proper' (silver leaf) plating can be exposed by experts for the simple reason that the early platers had severe problems covering edges properly. Electroplating is a later invention and has nothing to do with the 'regular' old pewterers' efforts - all after-silvered. This is why you will not find any 'experts' in connection with silvering of guild cast pewter in any country.
Not a very interesting subject for pewter collectors as explained above.
Humphrey Hyatt is a rare pewterer in English collections.
"Anthony Rolls, from Launton nr. Bicester, some 15 miles from Bledington, an exporter of note, apprenticed to John Sweeting from 1637, free 1645. (Humphrey Hyatt of Swedish Royal pewter service ‘HERS’ fame - was one of his apprentices). His apprentice John Redhead was free in 1676. He was born in Childs Wickham near Broadway, only a couple of miles from his famous exporting contemporary Thomas Shakle of Willersey. It is probably not a coincidence that Nicholas Kelk too was apprenticed to John Sweeting and turned out to be one of the greatest ever exporters of pewter."
The crowned rose was originally owned by the WCoP and used only on exported pewter until the Court orders were gradually 'relaxed' and eventually used also for domestic pewter. I wrote an article on this subject called 'The Crowned Rose as a secondary touch...', published in the Journal some years ago (with kind permission elsewhere on this website - Makers and Marks section) where you can follow the gradual demise of this powerful symbol (the secular crown symbolizing worldly power above the purity symbol of Mary, the rose).
This English touch/symbol was treated with respect in most European countries from the 15th century. Remember where the tin came from - and the London pewterers' concession!
A silver plated Tureen by Joseph Spackman - 1749 - 1799 (so when was this plated?...ed)
(further notes from Jan Gadd)
HERS - stands for Hedvig Eleonora Regina Suecia. She ruled Sweden very well during the Regency of King Karl (Carolus) XI, waiting for her son to grow up.
She had a great sense of humour and there are many descriptions of her belly-laughing at the antics in Court of some pompous foreign ambassadors.
She refurbished no less than eight Royal Palaces which is where all these services come in
I attach a (photo of) HERS broad rimmed plate in superb condition (by Jacques Taudin, Bordeaux and later London) which broke the Swedish price record for a single plate some years ago. (Pewter collectors competed with 'Royal provenance' collectors.)
Working for many years with pewter at several Swedish museums, especially the Nordic Museum and the National Museum in Stockholm I recorded a large quantity of London (and some York) flat ware. I was then able to 'expose' all these pewterers, almost unknown in English museums and collections, as exporting specialists.
Broad rimmed plate in superb condition by Jacques taudin - Bordeaux and later London - 1645 to 1680 (not silver plated)
Copper - I don't think the copper deposit is an overlay at all. In order to silver plate, you will have to acid treat the surface or to treat it electronically. Some such individual efforts will release the copper contents of the pewter to the surface. In your case it is perhaps more likely that a previous owner tried unsuccessfully to remove the silver plating, perhaps by reversing the poles in an electrolytic bath (or worse) when such release of the copper would occur.
(in daylight the copper is difficult to see other than around the monogram - whereas in the photos it is everywhere apparent)
Inquiry made of the above mentioned WCOP resulted in this reply from a long experienced collector and pewterer -
Do not confuse silver plating with silvering. Silver plating on pewter would be achieved by the electrolytic process using cathodes and anodes in a bath of an electrolyte and the application of an electric current which was not available until the mid 19th century. Silvering was achieved during the 17th century by the physical application of a silver salt such as silver chloride which was applied several times. This is how the early clock chapter rings and spandrels were silvered. I believe that your enquirer's dish was probably silver plated in the late 19th century. It was customary to plate first with copper to achieve a good reception for the silver......
It was interesting then to read more about Silvering of Pewter in - Made in Sheffield - The Story of James Dixon & Sons Silversmiths - by Pauline Cooper Bell...
Electroplated Nickel Silver - EPNS - is a technique by which Silver is deposited on a base metal using an electric current. The process was patented in 1840 and is still used today.
Silver is deposited on the base metal (often an alloy based on copper, nickel and zinc - though other alloys can be electroplated and other metals can be coated).
(This plate being a better quality item made for export clearly contained some copper. )
The process certainly enabled manufacturers like Dixon's who took it up, to produce good quality products, something of a halfway house between the cheaper Britannia Metal products and those made from sterling Silver.
This process should not be confused with Fused Plate or Sheffield Plate which are very different processes.
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In 1994 Dr Ron Homer wrote a short article for the UK Pewter Society Journal on Silvering/Gilding of Pewter. He seems to conclude that the examples he has seen were silvered after 1840 by electrolysis when there was apparently a fashion for doing so. Previous mention as with the Shoreys in 1708 of silvered wares he thinks referred to silvered brass. There simply did not previously exist a reasonable method of a giving a permanent or reasonably fixed coating of silver to pewter. One of the big problems was that pewter melted at such a low temperature in relation to many other metals and very thin layers would not apply easily or would be soon absorbed into the pewter.
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Conclusion -
This is a high quality, exported plate, much later silver plated.
(Made around 1690 and before 1704 - Silvered in the 1800s - likely after 1840)
Some years later a collector (perhaps) tried to remove the silver plating, with only limited success, but fortunately causing no damage.
So a rarely found piece, over 300 years old which led to this short article, on an interesting but rarely researched subject.
Any other comments would be welcomed.